Push for local rice varieties

A STAFF REPORTER

Jorhat, Jan. 29: Farmers at Pirakotta under Teok revenue circle in the district were told about the importance of conservation of indigenous rice varieties at a camp organised at Pirakota High School today.

Resource persons Ramanatha Rao, D. Malavika Dadlani and H.S. Hore from Biovarsity International, an organisation under the UN, and A.C. Sharma of Plant Variety Protection and Farmersí Rights Authority, conducted a baseline survey to find out why farmers had given up cultivating indigenous species and those still being cultivated.

The camp was held under a project of the biotechnology department of the Assam Agricultural University.

They also identified the varieties which had already become extinct and those which are on the verge of extinction.